Tuesday, May 24, 2016

‘Reintegration of Donbass Will Be Impossible After Five Years,’ Senior Kyiv Official Says

Paul
Goble

Staunton, May 24 – Ukraine must move
quickly to promote the reintegration of the Donbass because “five years from
now,” Georgy Tuka, the deputy head of the Kyiv ministry responsible for
overseeing such plans, says, “it will already be impossible” to do so because
the region will have been so affected by the Russian occupation.

“The goal of reintegration is the
restoration of the civil way of life both on controlled and uncontrolled
territories, the renewal of Ukrainian authority, and the return of local
residents to a normal way of life. This will require definite efforts both from
the authorities and from the international community,” Tuka says.

He adds that “one should also note that judging by the experience of international centers
involved in the study of armed conflict, one must conclude that if in the
course of five years the reintegration of territory does not take place, then
in practice this process will never take place at all.”

His ministry, Tuka says, is developing a plan that
will ultimately be confirmed by the president and the National Security and
Defense Council; but in it, “elections are the last step” given the things,
including the difficult task of rebuilding the infrastructure that has been
destroyed and the creation of jobs, all of which must be done before any honest
voting can occur.

At the present time, Tuka
acknowledges, there are only three people working in his ministry, although
there are supposed to be 105 when it is staffed up. He says he hopes that number
will be reached this week, allowing the ministry to function on its own and in
cooperation with others.

He indicates that the ministry will
focus on the Donbass first and then Crimea given the situations in the two and
that it will work with the ministries for social policy, education and others
to help IDPs recover as well.

Much depends, Tuka concludes, on the
reaction of the Russian side.If it
refuses to cooperate, then the situation will be difficult indeed.“In the best case, we will get a
Transdniestria; in the worst, something like Osetia.”